At our Thursday, December 10 session, we each agreed to take some time this weekend to read the groups' responses to the three questions in front of us.
(a) How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
(b) How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
(c) How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices ?
I took the step of cutting and pasting the various groups' responses and listing them beneath each question. That information is posted far below. A Word document containing that same information is posted here.
In examining the responses, I've scanned for trends and themes, placing these trends/themes into categories, noting immediate & high impact steps we could take (which the groups named in your responses to the questions). Next to each step, I've noted who I believe would be best suited to take the step. These are just four categories. Many more exist--and many more could be pursued.
Re-introducing the TLC to the Faculty • Pat Capps and Michael Ebeling, as co-chairs of the committee, write a note to staff outlining purpose and composition of TLC--as delineated on the home page of this wiki. • Provide staff with access to the Summit TLC wiki. [Karen House]
• Direct staff to meeting summary notes on the wiki. [Pat and Michael will create the summary notes, and the entire TLC will remind folks about them--and where to gain access to them.]
Providing Summaries of Best Practices in each Discipline/Subject Area • Each pair of subject area leaders teams up and creates a summary from the subject area document you are using to identify best practices. Each pair posts their document on the SummitTLC wiki--and distribute within each division of the school.
Using the SummitPD ning to Explore Faculty Questions and to Share Faculty Ideas • Provide a high-profile link to the SummitPD ning on insidesummit. [I just added this to the links listed in the staff section of insidesummit - karen]
• Create a Best Practices section of the ning where: [a] a summary of subject area best practices are listed; [b] actual Summit classroom examples [e.g., video clips, documents] are posted; [c] discussion about Best Practice can take place [Interested members of TLC, with the guidance of Karen] • Post a discussion question on the ning in which faculty are asked: What kind of professional development do you need? [TLC members then monitor the responses, addressing the thoughts in divisional meetings as well as in future TLC meetings.] I think this is extremely important, especially with the new technology that many of us are using in our classrooms. In the Math department, the Upper School teachers need a workshop on using the Sympodium and how to best use it to enhance teaching and learning. • Create a "monitoring rotation" by TLC members on the ning so that posts are acknowledged immediately--and so that the wider faculty is encouraged to respond to posts. [Interested sub-group of TLC, with Michael and Pat, can establish a preliminary rotation.]
Facilitating Classroom Visits • Facilitate an open-door policy for visiting classrooms by making a public chart of classroom visits: list everyone's names and have them check off other teachers they've visited. Ask teachers to share their Best Practices in particular on those days. [Division Heads in collaboration with subject area leaders.]
• Establish a "visit protocol" that equips folks to: Look for best practices and engage in comfortable and informed conversation. [All members of TLC through the use of this wiki and google docs. Interested members of TLC can draft a protocol, then post it as a google doc and allow others to contribute to it.]
I'd recommend that we use this as a starting point--and a working document. Feel free to add points and action steps--or to post discussion topics in response to what is listed. I'm hoping we will start immediately.
Small Group Responses to 3 Essential Questions A. How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
•Upper level teachers are already communicating within their subject areas through meetings and wikis. Wikis facilitate discussion regardless of schedule.
•Communicating in division meetings and grade level meetings
•A relaxed sharing of ideas and practices with colleagues that exemplify best practices.
•Make a point to visit other areas of the school.
•Recognize the best practices you've observed and encourage them to share with others
•Share condensed notes from TLC meetings
• show folks in our division what we're learning
• highlight (in ning/wikis) the things folks are already doing that are things we want to promote
• use the book Best Practices for discussions in divisions
• do projects together, model and collaborate with each other
• brainstorm ideas in division meetings
• invite folks to visit and observe classes
• post schedules and special class projects on wikis/google docs so teacher know about observation possibilities
• focus on one skill area, theme, etc. at a time
• start working with grade level team first and call in other folks/specialist to brainstorm
• look at best practices at each level that ought to be continued at the next level
• share great bookmarks for each subject area through a faculty delicious list
• Share "Best Practice Recommendations" within subject areas: it's a great way to start a conversation with colleagues; it will also serve as a helpful reminder while planning.
• Share "Common Recommendations of National Curriculum Reports" in division meetings. These can be an overview within meetings across the school; from there, we can go to more specific recommendations within subject areas.
• Re-introduce the committee and its purpose; make an introduction to working on Best Practices together so that we can be seen as a resource. Remind staff that the committee rotates and clarify our mission.
• Make goals transparent for staff.
• Make a concerted effort to devote time to addressing school-wide (division-wide) goals on the wiki. Opening with "what would you like help with?" might be a possibility. Having specific time will allow for full teacher participation.
• Start gently with having teachers share their own Best Practices for particular subject areas on the wiki.
• Facilitate an open-door policy for visiting classrooms by making a public chart of classroom visits: list everyone's names and have them check off other teachers they've visited. (Having one morning allocated to classrooms visits might get people excited about those visits. (Ask teachers to share their Best Practices in particular on those days.)
• Subject area leaders could coordinate workshops that highlight best practices among us (highlight our internal experts).
• Wine and Cheese Gatherings as venue?
• COLLABORATION - It is key to work with others within your discipline to detail curriculum. Recognizing that we are ultimately accountable for the flow of curriculum is vital. For example, the Upper School teachers are meeting with others in their discipline on a weekly basis to design curriculums, insuring that the learning flows smoothly from one year to another. Utilizing time that's already built into the day is KEY to buy-in on this - not scheduling more meetings or trying to find time in otherwise incredibly tight schedules to do more work.
• Have regular subject area meetings and grade level meetings
• Identify our goals
• Highlight existing best practices (as encouragement and guidance) - be sure to include areas for improvement
• Encourage even small changes teachers can make
• Encourage teachers to connect with educators and leaders at other schools or anywhere in the community - utilize outside resources
B. How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
• Assist colleagues in joining the ning.
• Provide link to ning on the staff section of inside Summmit.
• TLC members should encourage their busy colleagues to check the ning for helpful information.
• Post examples of best practice on the ning to encourage discussion and idea sharing.
• share/showcase videos/descriptions of projects/ideas showing best practices
• replace meetings as a discussion forum and a place to share content
• make it so exciting and humorous that people want to use the ning and do not feel they are required to check it out
• ask teachers what they need and are interested in learning
• Having a Best Practices page as a container for divisions and/or subject areas, in addition to open discussion.
• Again, making time to post questions and responses as part of division meeting times will encourage full staff participation.
• Should we create dedicated spaces on the ning by subject area?
• This could be a great area for featuring external resources and expertise.
• What is the easiest way to get to the ning?
• We need to put the question out to the faculty to ask what is needed to enhance professional development. Specific disciplines or various faculty may need various subjects to be addressed. Needs can then be addressed on an individual or small-group basis.
• Encouraging staff members to post questions to the ning when they arise during conversations throughout the day would be great, as would acknowledging and affirming questions when they are posted. It would be fabulous if every discussion started on the Wiki could be at the least acknowledged, at the most further explored (by a member of the TLC), within 48 hours.
• Encourage teachers to set up an rss reader like iGoogle allowing them to follow the ning as part of a daily routine
• Aim for balance between accessibility and overlap
C. How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices?
• Provide condensed versions of best practices for teachers.
• Pointing out those practices to individuals when we see them and encourage them to share.
• Introduce a thread on the ning to inspire discussion.
• Offer to cover someone's class to facilitate visitation.
• Seeking opportunities in your schedule for visiting others.
• must present carefully/positively so that folks feel they're being helped to do their job better, not just having to add to their burden
• need to keep a balance and carefully consider expectations; day to day teaching duties take a lot of mental and physical energy and we don't want to give less to the kids because we're burning the midnight oil on technology
• Have teachers informally volunteer to provide workshops on their areas of strength. Essentially, this would be a staff development activity.
• Have teachers go through a learning process themselves: take a course with another class and do the class activities. Be a student, and really walk in their shoes. Students will see teachers as models for continuing learning. Also empowers students to help us.
• Everyone should teach another person's class once a year.
• Everyone could arrange an exchange with a team teaching model.
• It would be fabulous if each teacher could identify at least one key area where they excel (e.g., cooperative learning, effective discipline, etc.). The strengths could be pulled off self-assessments, combined with division head evaluations. If a list was easily accessible, any teacher who is wishing to further explore an area where he/she feels lacking, pointed visits could be easily arranged. Division heads could compile a list of appropriate people to visit to enhance specific skills staff feel they are lacking.
• Disseminate relevant information (from what we are reading and discussing) in manageable amounts
• Make use of video technology to observe another teacher (maybe tape or skype in while another teacher is teaching)
At our Thursday, December 10 session, we each agreed to take some time this weekend to read the groups' responses to the three questions in front of us.
(a) How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
(b) How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
(c) How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices ?
I took the step of cutting and pasting the various groups' responses and listing them beneath each question. That information is posted far below. A Word document containing that same information is posted here.
In examining the responses, I've scanned for trends and themes, placing these trends/themes into categories, noting immediate & high impact steps we could take (which the groups named in your responses to the questions). Next to each step, I've noted who I believe would be best suited to take the step. These are just four categories. Many more exist--and many more could be pursued.
Re-introducing the TLC to the Faculty
• Pat Capps and Michael Ebeling, as co-chairs of the committee, write a note to staff outlining purpose and composition of TLC--as delineated on the home page of this wiki.
• Provide staff with access to the Summit TLC wiki. [Karen House]
• Direct staff to meeting summary notes on the wiki. [Pat and Michael will create the summary notes, and the entire TLC will remind folks about them--and where to gain access to them.]
Providing Summaries of Best Practices in each Discipline/Subject Area
• Each pair of subject area leaders teams up and creates a summary from the subject area document you are using to identify best practices. Each pair posts their document on the SummitTLC wiki--and distribute within each division of the school.
Using the SummitPD ning to Explore Faculty Questions and to Share Faculty Ideas
• Provide a high-profile link to the SummitPD ning on insidesummit. [I just added this to the links listed in the staff section of insidesummit - karen]
• Create a Best Practices section of the ning where: [a] a summary of subject area best practices are listed; [b] actual Summit classroom examples [e.g., video clips, documents] are posted; [c] discussion about Best Practice can take place [Interested members of TLC, with the guidance of Karen]
• Post a discussion question on the ning in which faculty are asked: What kind of professional development do you need? [TLC members then monitor the responses, addressing the thoughts in divisional meetings as well as in future TLC meetings.] I think this is extremely important, especially with the new technology that many of us are using in our classrooms. In the Math department, the Upper School teachers need a workshop on using the Sympodium and how to best use it to enhance teaching and learning.
• Create a "monitoring rotation" by TLC members on the ning so that posts are acknowledged immediately--and so that the wider faculty is encouraged to respond to posts. [Interested sub-group of TLC, with Michael and Pat, can establish a preliminary rotation.]
Facilitating Classroom Visits
• Facilitate an open-door policy for visiting classrooms by making a public chart of classroom visits: list everyone's names and have them check off other teachers they've visited. Ask teachers to share their Best Practices in particular on those days. [Division Heads in collaboration with subject area leaders.]
• Establish a "visit protocol" that equips folks to: Look for best practices and engage in comfortable and informed conversation. [All members of TLC through the use of this wiki and google docs. Interested members of TLC can draft a protocol, then post it as a google doc and allow others to contribute to it.]
I'd recommend that we use this as a starting point--and a working document. Feel free to add points and action steps--or to post discussion topics in response to what is listed. I'm hoping we will start immediately.
Small Group Responses to 3 Essential Questions
A. How can the members of TLC take our work beyond this group? Specifically, how can the members of TLC work together to provide leadership and support in refining teaching and enhancing student learning beyond our own classrooms?
•Upper level teachers are already communicating within their subject areas through meetings and wikis. Wikis facilitate discussion regardless of schedule.
•Communicating in division meetings and grade level meetings
•A relaxed sharing of ideas and practices with colleagues that exemplify best practices.
•Make a point to visit other areas of the school.
•Recognize the best practices you've observed and encourage them to share with others
•Share condensed notes from TLC meetings
• show folks in our division what we're learning
• highlight (in ning/wikis) the things folks are already doing that are things we want to promote
• use the book Best Practices for discussions in divisions
• do projects together, model and collaborate with each other
• brainstorm ideas in division meetings
• invite folks to visit and observe classes
• post schedules and special class projects on wikis/google docs so teacher know about observation possibilities
• focus on one skill area, theme, etc. at a time
• start working with grade level team first and call in other folks/specialist to brainstorm
• look at best practices at each level that ought to be continued at the next level
• share great bookmarks for each subject area through a faculty delicious list
• Share "Best Practice Recommendations" within subject areas: it's a great way to start a conversation with colleagues; it will also serve as a helpful reminder while planning.
• Share "Common Recommendations of National Curriculum Reports" in division meetings. These can be an overview within meetings across the school; from there, we can go to more specific recommendations within subject areas.
• Re-introduce the committee and its purpose; make an introduction to working on Best Practices together so that we can be seen as a resource. Remind staff that the committee rotates and clarify our mission.
• Make goals transparent for staff.
• Make a concerted effort to devote time to addressing school-wide (division-wide) goals on the wiki. Opening with "what would you like help with?" might be a possibility. Having specific time will allow for full teacher participation.
• Start gently with having teachers share their own Best Practices for particular subject areas on the wiki.
• Facilitate an open-door policy for visiting classrooms by making a public chart of classroom visits: list everyone's names and have them check off other teachers they've visited. (Having one morning allocated to classrooms visits might get people excited about those visits. (Ask teachers to share their Best Practices in particular on those days.)
• Subject area leaders could coordinate workshops that highlight best practices among us (highlight our internal experts).
• Wine and Cheese Gatherings as venue?
• COLLABORATION - It is key to work with others within your discipline to detail curriculum. Recognizing that we are ultimately accountable for the flow of curriculum is vital. For example, the Upper School teachers are meeting with others in their discipline on a weekly basis to design curriculums, insuring that the learning flows smoothly from one year to another. Utilizing time that's already built into the day is KEY to buy-in on this - not scheduling more meetings or trying to find time in otherwise incredibly tight schedules to do more work.
• Have regular subject area meetings and grade level meetings
• Identify our goals
• Highlight existing best practices (as encouragement and guidance) - be sure to include areas for improvement
• Encourage even small changes teachers can make
• Encourage teachers to connect with educators and leaders at other schools or anywhere in the community - utilize outside resources
B. How can we (as TLC) leverage the SummitPD ning as one venue for addressing the question above?
• Assist colleagues in joining the ning.
• Provide link to ning on the staff section of inside Summmit.
• TLC members should encourage their busy colleagues to check the ning for helpful information.
• Post examples of best practice on the ning to encourage discussion and idea sharing.
• share/showcase videos/descriptions of projects/ideas showing best practices
• replace meetings as a discussion forum and a place to share content
• make it so exciting and humorous that people want to use the ning and do not feel they are required to check it out
• ask teachers what they need and are interested in learning
• Having a Best Practices page as a container for divisions and/or subject areas, in addition to open discussion.
• Again, making time to post questions and responses as part of division meeting times will encourage full staff participation.
• Should we create dedicated spaces on the ning by subject area?
• This could be a great area for featuring external resources and expertise.
• What is the easiest way to get to the ning?
• We need to put the question out to the faculty to ask what is needed to enhance professional development. Specific disciplines or various faculty may need various subjects to be addressed. Needs can then be addressed on an individual or small-group basis.
• Encouraging staff members to post questions to the ning when they arise during conversations throughout the day would be great, as would acknowledging and affirming questions when they are posted. It would be fabulous if every discussion started on the Wiki could be at the least acknowledged, at the most further explored (by a member of the TLC), within 48 hours.
• Encourage teachers to set up an rss reader like iGoogle allowing them to follow the ning as part of a daily routine
• Aim for balance between accessibility and overlap
C. How can we (as TLC) support colleagues in seeing their own best practices (as defined and exemplified by research we are reading) as well as in visiting the classrooms of colleagues with the goal of seeing their best practices?
• Provide condensed versions of best practices for teachers.
• Pointing out those practices to individuals when we see them and encourage them to share.
• Introduce a thread on the ning to inspire discussion.
• Offer to cover someone's class to facilitate visitation.
• Seeking opportunities in your schedule for visiting others.
• must present carefully/positively so that folks feel they're being helped to do their job better, not just having to add to their burden
• need to keep a balance and carefully consider expectations; day to day teaching duties take a lot of mental and physical energy and we don't want to give less to the kids because we're burning the midnight oil on technology
• Have teachers informally volunteer to provide workshops on their areas of strength. Essentially, this would be a staff development activity.
• Have teachers go through a learning process themselves: take a course with another class and do the class activities. Be a student, and really walk in their shoes. Students will see teachers as models for continuing learning. Also empowers students to help us.
• Everyone should teach another person's class once a year.
• Everyone could arrange an exchange with a team teaching model.
• It would be fabulous if each teacher could identify at least one key area where they excel (e.g., cooperative learning, effective discipline, etc.). The strengths could be pulled off self-assessments, combined with division head evaluations. If a list was easily accessible, any teacher who is wishing to further explore an area where he/she feels lacking, pointed visits could be easily arranged. Division heads could compile a list of appropriate people to visit to enhance specific skills staff feel they are lacking.
• Disseminate relevant information (from what we are reading and discussing) in manageable amounts
• Make use of video technology to observe another teacher (maybe tape or skype in while another teacher is teaching)
• Find time to observe another teacher